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NARA 263

degrade [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] a human being, that every negro is pitied that falls into their power — They were noted for starving and half clothing their own when they owned them, and during the war it was believed by all around here that they were helping themselves to their neighbor's stock &c. &c, and as soon as the war was over their sons were implicated in stealing cotton — In dishonesty and meanness of every kind, down to writing anonymous letter to destroy the happiness of families and injure people's character, this family has one on untill their name is a by-word in the community; and yet such is their shrewdness that the law has not yet laid its hand on their degraded heads —

One of these negro men has a wife and several young children dependant on him, one a babe only a few days old — She went to Simpson Co. a month ago and has been looking for her husband ever since, to get her a home and provisions, while he, poor fellow, has been lying in jail, accused of killing a mule, when, I am credibly informed, the very young Fairchild who was the only witness against him, was standing by and assisting them in beating the mule to make it work — The old man presented the negroes to the grand jury and his son witnessed against them and they knew nothing of the accusation untill arrested — The had refused to live with him and had left there to get a home, they knew not what to do, they had no one to tell them what to do — There are gentlemen here who are willing to bail them out and let them go to work, but they have been advised not to do it untill they see what course the Convention is going to take —— But what, in the meantime is to become at the wife & young children of the men and the old blind wife of the other? We who are willing are not able to feed them - Shall these poor fellows, who are as well-behaved negro men as I ever saw, so far as I have heard of them, lie in jail untill next June, merely to gratify the malice of this pernicious family?
I have very good reasons to believe that these negroes had no more to do in killing that mule than the Fairchild's themselves, and that they never would have been prosecuted had they agreed to live there this year, and that had they been really guilty of maliciously killing the mule, Fairchild would have [[strikethrough]] been [[/strikethrough]] prosecuted them last June; for it was prior to any June term that it was killed- Now Gen. Gillem, if you have any legal power to investigate this case and release these negroes or see that they have a fair trial, I hope you will do it - I am a Southern woman, a real heart and soul Rebel to the Government of the U.S. (such as it has been for some years) but I do not deplore the present condition of affairs more on account of my own race, than I do that this very condition does the poor blacks no good,  and is building such a hatred between the races that even the honest - and just among us are either afraid or unwilling to arrest a case of injustice like the one I present to you — I owe allegiance to one Master, He tells me "to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God," and I will try to obey him, let what will turn up —
I hope though that you will not between my name to the Fairchild's, for they are not

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-16 12:14:28